I’m I’ve managed to build a fun little physics simulator that lets you see how Rudolph’s nose will change colour depending on the angle you see it from. Hopefully I’ll get it posted by the 25th. For now a teaser picture.…

I was able to complete the construction and soldering of the capacitor board in a few hours. The first step involves tracing out the circuit on a sheet of plexiglass, this is : if you look at the back of the board you’ll see how I’ve but a resistor across each capacitor, this keeps the…

The capacitors have finally arrived. UPS decided that shipping them from Ontario -> My apartment in BC -> Ontario -> University of Victoria was a good idea. However, they have finally shown up! Aren’t they beautiful? You will doubtless notice the little baggy of resistors. These have a ridiculously high resistance and voltage tolerances. They’re…

The first step in a Tesla coil is the transformer. It is what generates the initial voltage increase from a piddling 120V that is produced by an outlet to the powerful kilo volt range. In the good old days of 10 years ago you could just waltz down to a neon sign shop and purchase…

The top load is what turns the secondary coil into an LC circuit. The idea is that it acts like a capacitor with the ground. Charge builds up on it’s surface until the potential grows so large that a lighting bolt breaks out. The reason people shape it as a torus is to force the…

I was little disappointed to find out that the electronics shop had no appropriate capacitors lying around. I had been hoping I could avoid assembling by hand, or buying the fiddly little bastards. Oh well, I can only hope this doesn’t set me back too far. It looks like the plate capacitors are actually pretty…

This is the secondary coil for my Tesla coil. It consists of roughly 1000 turns of 24 gauge magnet wire. It was made by the University of Victoria machine shop. They did a better job than I could have ever hoped for. The trick was spending about an hour setting up a jigger to…

This weekend I spend most of my time working on the primary coil for the Tesla coil. I was very surprised that I actually managed to get this done. It is made from copper piping and a hacked up cutting board. I found it surprisingly fun figuring out the best way of assembling this. Though…

This blog is associated with my youtube channel, TheGentlemanPhysicist. It will give some behind the scenes looks at upcoming projects and an outlet for my physics ramblings that don’t take up enough space (or too much space) for a video.…